Devils snap offensive slump with 5-2 win over Flyers

Flyers' Scott Hartnell, left, runs into the elbow of New Jersey Devils' Bryce Salvadore during the second period.

NEWARK — Gradually, the Devils are getting their feet back on solid ground in the Eastern Conference playoff race.

They took another step forward Wednesday night at Prudential Center by breaking out of a nearly month-long offensive slump with a 5-2 victory over the Philadelphia Flyers in the first game of a home-and-home series.

It was the first time the Devils scored more than three goals since a 5-3 win over the Flyers on Feb. 15 at The Rock and gave them their first regulation win since a 3-2 victory Feb. 21 at Washington.

Adam Henrique led the way with two goals and an assist. Andrei Loktionov and Patrik Elias had a goal and an assist apiece, and goaltender Johan Hedberg was sharp in making 23 saves.

“We haven’t had many nights like that in the last two months, so it was nice to score,” Devils coach Pete DeBoer said. “It was nice to get [Hedberg] a win and to have a game like that was a nice change.”

The Devils had scored more than two goals only three times in 12 games since that Feb. 15 win over the Flyers, going just 3-7-2 during that stretch. But they followed up a 3-2 shootout win over Winnipeg on Sunday with their most complete effort in more than a month and notched consecutive wins for the first time since sweeping a home-and-home series from Pittsburgh on Feb. 9 and 10.

After a six-game losing streak that nearly knocked them out of the top eight in the East, they’ve won three out of four to pull into a tie for sixth with Toronto with 31 points and moved six points ahead the 11th-place Flyers. The Atlantic Division rivals meet again Friday night at Wells Fargo Center.

“We’ve won three out of four. That’s pretty good,” Hedberg said. “We know it’s going to be a tight race. We want to stay away from long dips that we had and play a consistent game. If you can keep playing like we have and do a little more of the things we did [Wednesday], we’re going to be successful a lot of nights.”

The Flyers were the perfect medicine for what’s been ailing the Devils. The Devils are 3-0 against the Flyers this season and have won seven in a row from them overall, including the last four games of last season’s Eastern Conference semifinal series.And, with Flyers goaltender Ilya Bryzgalov saying Tuesday that his team would be “done” in the playoff race if it loses both games of this series, the Devils sense an opportunity to deal a serious blow to one of their biggest rivals.

“If we get a ‘W,’ it’s nice they’re looking up to you in the standings,” Elias said. “It was mentioned here, but I think it’s more important for us to just stay with the game plan.”

Elias gave the Devils a 1-0 lead by backhanding in the rebound of Steve Bernier’s left-circle shot just 2:02 into the game. After the Flyers pulled even on Jakub Voracek’s power-play goal at 9:45 of the first, the Devils retook the lead only 36 seconds later on a goal credited to Henrique.

Bryzgalov made a pad save on Henrique’s wrist shot from the top of the right circle, but the rebound went in off the right skate of Flyers right wing Matt Read in front.

Ilya Kovalchuk upped the Devils’ lead to 3-1 with 2:42 to play in the first period by beating Bryzgalov over the left shoulder on a shorthanded breakaway — his league-leading fourth shorthanded goal of the season. Loktionov made it 4-1 on his 2-on-1 goal at 6:31 into the second, using a nifty toe drag to shed Flyers defenseman Braydon Coburn in the left circle before beating Bryzgalov to the stick side.Henrique made it 5-1 with a backhand over Bryzgalov’s left shoulder for a power-play goal 1:16 into the third period.

“I think it was just important for everybody to play a solid game from top to bottom, from start to finish,” Henrique said. “Everybody played well. Everybody was contributing. We built off that last win and carried that into [Wednesday] and, hopefully, we keep that going Friday.”